Oscar Piastri feliciteert Max Verstappen

Verstappen robbed Piastri of all hope: 'I tried, I really tried'

15:00, 26 Jul

Updated: 15:03, 26 Jul

byTim Kraaij

Oscar Piastri could only watch as Max Verstappen took the sprint victory in Belgium. The Australian claims to have really tried, but was simply unable to attack Verstappen.

‘’Realistically, not that close’’, Oscar Piastri began after the sprint race at the press conference. According to Piastri, a real attack on Max was never really possible. ‘’I think there was one or two times where I got within a car length but the problem is I didn’t have enough. And Turn 5 is not really a corner where you can make a lunge on someone.’’

‘’Once they defend the inside, it’s difficult to do anything. So I think realistically I was going to have to try and get past on the straight, which we were no chance of doing. A little bit frustrating, but we knew that was a possibility going into the Sprint and I was prepared.’’

Regardless, Piastri didn't immediately give up after Verstappen overtook him. ‘’I was hoping we would be super quick in the middle sector and be able to hang on, but I think I could for the first part of the race. But spending that much time right behind someone, you overheat the tyres very quickly. Especially around here, they deg as well.’’

How Piastri tried to attack Verstappen

But Piastri kept trying. In the eleventh lap, Piastri had the best opportunity when Max Verstappen suffered braking issues. This time, Piastri came close to Verstappen to force him into a defensive line. However, Piastri never attacked.

‘’I was trying. I was definitely trying. It’s difficult because you want to save the battery at some points, you want to use it at some points, but you also don’t want to drop too far back and give yourself too much of a gap to actually close up to because it wasn’t as simple as just getting DRS and then letting DRS do the rest. You had to be even closer than that. That was tricky, but I certainly tried in those 15 laps, but to no avail.’’